THE BEER NUT: UFO flying high with new fruity beers

Wednesday

Apr 11, 2018 at 9:05 AMApr 12, 2018 at 8:53 AM

Harpoon Brewery first launched its UFO in the early 2000s, introducing one of the first – if not the first – unfiltered hefeweizen on the East Coast.

Now, its own brand, UFO is flying high as they continue to introduce new beers, creating a lineup of fun and mainly fruity beers. You can kind of look at them as the anti-IPA that is dominating the world of craft beer.

“For us, it’s fun, and it’s fun for the consumer,” said Harpoon’s vice president of marketing, Chris Bonacci. “We wanted to bring a unique tasting experience out to the people.”

Harpoon has introduced a few new beers throughout the years to the UFO line – the UFO White and the UFO Raspberry still remain as year-round beers.

The idea behind most of the UFOs is that they are unfiltered (UFO stands for Unfiltered Offering) and are typically wheat-based.

Harpoon realized that UFO could be its own standalone line and decided to introduce more beers to the UFO brand, Bonacci said.

“We actually started the process about two years ago,” he said. “We realized we had a great line in place, and we started realizing we could do more with this. We started thinking about seasonals.”

Those seasonals included the UFO Pumpkin and the UFO Huckleberry. Now, Harpoon has launched a new seasonal, as well as a new year-round beer.

The new year-round beer is the UFO Pineapple, a 5.2 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) wheat beer brewed with pineapple.

“We are interested in flavorful beers, but that are less hoppy than what people are used to,” said Bonacci. “Less hoppy and more fruity. We want to bring the flavor out.

The new summer seasonal is the UFO Pink Lemonade Shandy, which comes in at 4.4 percent ABV. A shandy is typically a lighter beer mixed with a fruit juice. U.S. versions are typically low-alcohol fruity beers.

“One of the sale guys kind of floated the idea of a pink lemonade beer,” said Bonacci. “We tried it, and we really enjoyed it.”

That’s not unusual for someone directly related to making the beer to come up with a UFO beer. Bonacci said it is a true team effort.

“We have an internal committee that gets together once a month that tries beers and new ideas,” he said. “When someone has an idea, they’ll send it to Al (Marzi), our chief brewing operator.”

The brewers will produce a small batch of beers that will be put on tap in the employee lounge and the Harpoon Beer Hall. Many of the beers never make it past that point while others, such as the UFO Pineapple, are big enough hits that they make it to market.”

“It’s fun to make interesting and flavorful beers,” Bonacci said. “We love to explore great flavors.”

UFO Pineapple and the UFO Pink Lemonade are both currently available.

Arriving with Bells on

In other (exciting) beer news, Bells Brewery of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has announced it will begin distributing its beer in Massachusetts, as well as every other New England state, and New Jersey this summer.

Bells is one of the oldest and most-respected breweries in the country and brews some amazing beers. Year-round beers include the Kalamazoo Stout and Two Hearted Ale. Seasonals include Oberon Ale, a fabulous summer wheat beer. They also brew a lineup of specialty beers, including the popular Hopslam IPA and Expedition Stout.

Bells has not announced the exact date of launch, but said they will have several launch parties when they do.

Norman Miller is a Daily News staff writer. Email him at nmiller@wickedlocal.com or call at 508-626-3823. Check out the Beer Nut blog at http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/section/blogs01?taxid=646&start=2. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @RealBeerNut and on Facebook at facebook.com/NormanMillerBeerNut.

Communities

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
Wicked Local East Bridgewater ~ 1324 Belmont St., Unit 102, Brockton, MA 02301 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service